Developed by Atari in 1980. The very first official commercial
port of one company's game to another company's console. As the
first conversion, the emphasis was not on capturing the original
look of the arcade, but simply the game play. To that end, Atari
did a good job, and the game proceeded to sell the system to homes
that didn't yet possess one just so people could play Space
Invaders at home. Multiple variations of game plays exist,
including different ways for two players to play cooperatively or
competitively. A cheat enables one player to fire two bullets at
once, instead of just one, by holding the reset button down while
powering the system on.

Developed by Atari in 1982. In an unusual move for Atari, the
5200 version of the game is different from the 8-bit home computer
version of the game. In many ways, it's an improvement. Though the
graphics do not come any closer to the arcade, the gameplay does.
Shields are present, and even though the invaders march on to the
screen from the left, there is no "mother" invader present on the
screen.

Developed by Atari in 1980. Generally speaking, the Atari 8-bit
line of home computers were considered homes to many accurate
arcade conversions, but this version of Space Invaders diverges the
most from the arcade version compared to any other Atari
conversion. No shields are present, and there is a kind of
mothership present on the side of the screen that the aliens appear
from.

Original Game Boy version developed by Taito in 1990.
Reprogrammed for the Super Game Boy by Taito and published in the
U.S. by Nintendo in 1994. When accessed through the Super Game Boy,
two modes are available. There is the Super Game Boy enhanced mode
of the original Game Boy version, but the game also contains a full
Super Nintendo program that is identical to the SNES entry
below.

Developed by Taito in 1994. Republished in the US by Nintendo in
1997. This was the first conversion of Space Invaders to provide
players with the option to simulate one of four different varieties
of the arcade machine. Players could choose between a black &
white mode, color back drop mode, color celophane overlay mode, and
true color mode. Additionally, there was a two-player only
competition mode. This conversion served as the model for most
future releases.

As one of the oldest games on the oldest home systems, Space
Invaders has inspired a lot of work on the Atari 2600. The original
ROM was first hacked by Rob Kudla to more accurately reflect the
look of the arcade, including the sprites and the colors. That was
further hacked by Nukey Shay into Space Invaders Deluxe which adds
the Taito RGB colorization of Space Invaders as well as all as many
of the additions found in the Deluxe version of the arcade game.
Two homebrew games were built from the ground up. Space Insitgators
attempts to get as close to the look of the arcade, sacrificing as
little of the game play as possible. INV+ takes the opposite
approach, trying to get as close to the game play of the arcade,
sacrificing the look of the arcade where necessary.

Developed by Bob DeCrescenzo (aka PacManPlus on the AtariAge.com
forums) and published on cartridge in 2008, this homebrew
conversion of the game features one or two players, stationary or
moving shields, fast or slow enemy shots, visible or invisible
invaders, straight or zig-zagging enemy shots, and the choice
between 4 colors schemes. It is available for purchase through the
AtariAge.com store, but the ROM is also available for download.

Developed by Joe Hellesen (also responsible for the Atari 8-bit
conversion of Pac-Man) in 1981. Far more faithful to the arcade
than Atari's official conversion. Roklan purchased the game from
Joe and distributed it for the Atari computers as Deluxe
Invaders.

Note: In 2010, Krzysztof Dudek ported Apple Invaders,
mentioned above, from the original Apple II program to the Atari
8-bit systems.

Developed by Bally, and originally intended to be titled Space
Invaders. Since Bally Midway owned the US rights to the arcade
game, they thought they had the rights to distribute the title on
their home system as well. The name was probably changed due to the
perceived threat of a lawsuit from Atari. Interestingly, Astro
Battle is the name of the very Space Invaders like stage in the
Bally Midway produced multi-stage vertical shooter Gorf.

The Space Invaders Collection was developed by Eduardo Mello
under his Opcode Games label and released in September 2003.
Contains pixel accurate conversions of both the original arcade
game as well as Taito's Space Invaders Part 2 (also known as Space
Invaders Deluxe). Before this, John Dondzila developed Space
Invasion in 1998, which is also a very accurate conversion of both
games, although it is not pixel accurate.

In 1996, John Dendzila published the first new game for the
Vectrex since 1984. A tribute to Space Invaders, Vector Vaders
attempted to capture the multi alien mayhem found in all
conversions. However, limitations on how many images the vector
system could draw caused a shimmering slowdown effect. Dendzila
remade the game in a simpler, yet more playable fashion as Vector
Vaders Remix, contained in his Vecmania compilation cart, which is
the first 64K Vectrex cart.